Iroquois lacrosse team not allowed into U.K. for tourney

by Samantha Gross - Jul. 15, 2010 12:00 AMAssociated Press

NEW YORK - An American Indian lacrosse team will not be allowed entry into England for the world championship of the sport the Iroquois helped invent unless members accept U.S. or Canadian passports, the British government said Wednesday.

The Iroquois Nationals won't be attending the tournament in Manchester unless the British government reverses its decision and allows them to use passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team.

"They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,' " Frichner said Wednesday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating."

The team's 23 players - who are all eligible for passports issued by those nations - say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity.

In a statement, the U.K. Borders Agency said: "Like all those seeking entry into the U.K., they must present a document that we recognise as valid to enable us to complete our immigration and other checks."

The British government's decision was announced hours after the U.S. cleared the team for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. U.S. authorities initially had refused to accept the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration.

Asked why the State Department had dropped its opposition, spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "There was flexibility there to grant this kind of one-time waiver given the unique circumstances of this particular trip."

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y., urged the British to reconsider their decision.

"If the British or any national entity seeks to sever this Iroquois Nationals team from their own national identity, then they're asking them to not be the athletes that they are," he said in a statement, calling it an "international embarrassment" if they're not allowed to compete.

Federation of International Lacrosse spokesman Ron Balls said in a statement on the championship website that the Iroquois team would forfeit the opening game against England tonight if it didn't arrive on time.

The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse, perhaps as early as 1,000 years ago. Their participation in the once-every-four-year world championship tournament is a rare example of international recognition of their sovereignty.